Chinese DAC's

I visited LAIV’s room at Axpona/2025 and was generally impressed by their Harmony DAC and other electronics.  They are certainly well built with the latest SMD technology.  Alvin at Vinshine mentioned that they have a limited pre-tariff stock in the USA-- so it would be timely to move on that if LAIV is on your radar.

I’ve heard a $700 Musician DAC in a friend’s system.  That one is a great value, but I was unable to A-B it to anything.

The top Audio-GD R2R DAC is in transit to me.  This one should be particularly interesting as an example of what can be achieved in China at a higher price point.  I’ll be comparing its I2S input to an Esoteric K-01X with USB input from a Sonore Signature Rendu Deluxe with SOtM USBultra.

The tariff situation is certainly unfortunate and will freeze business in the short term-- affecting also exports by US-based audio companies  My guess is that it will eventually sink of its own weight.   

@brbrock Agreed. My post was in response to freediver's over the top, knee jerk  response to you. It's too bad Alvin doesn't have any Tai Hang DC blockers for sale here that are pre tariff, waiting to be sold. 

All the best,
Nonoise

The issue I’m encountering with all importers of products from tariffed countries is that if there a 20% tariff on a product, the tariff is on the product but not on the cost of doing business. Why are all this companies talking about raising their prices by said amount when the price of the item is fractions of the retail price?

Unless I am mistaken and if anyone can shred some light that would be great but a very large (huge) number of electronic parts (transistors, capacitors, circuit boards, etc.) are made in China. These get put into electronics of all kinds (televisions, amps, pre-amps, CD players and transports, streamers, etc) and the majority of American made companies use these parts. Therefore the parts higher tariff cost will make ALL AUDIO  equipment increase in price in the US.

Study the reviews on those DACs before pulling the trigger. A lot of the "reviewers" and comments are from folks that may not be at the same level or have the same component needs as what you might run into on this site. There are FB pages with endless back and forth about how one $500 DAC compares to another, and then there's ASR where some of those DACs are top rated, but in reality have very little musicality. Not all, but many or even most fall into these categories.